10 Inspiring Moms Who Have Changed the World Forever

Moms Making a Difference

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On March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day, which has been observed since the early 1900s. No one organization, government, institution, corporation, etc. can lay claim to the occasion. It’s truly a day for the global community to recognize the contributions of women around the world. As world-renowned feminist, journalist and social and political activist Gloria Steinem put it, “The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”

Women who have juggled their roles as influential, inspiring changemakers and mothers no doubt deserve special shout-outs. Here, 10 moms from the past and present who have changed the world in a major way.

Michelle Obama

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To understand the impact that the Harvard-trained lawyer and writer has made on the globe, you need to look no further than the stunning new portrait of the former First Lady of the United States hanging in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. At the official unveiling of the portrait on February 12, Obama, mom to teen daughters Malia and Sasha, said, “I’m...thinking about all of the young people, particularly girls and girls of color, who, in years ahead, will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution. I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives because I was one of those girls.”

In addition to her work on the childhood obesity epidemic and support for veterans, Obama launched Let Girls Learn, a U.S. government-wide initiative to help girls around the world go to school and stay in school, in 2015.

Beyonce

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Who run the world? Girls — and, let’s be honest, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter aka Queen Bey, who was referred to as “the new political goddess” by CNN. The mom of three is considered a true changemaker in the music industry, having pioneered the way artists now release visual and digital albums. (As the “Flawless” lyric goes, she “changed the game with that digital drop.”) The inspiring multihyphenate is also the most-nominated woman in Grammy history with 20 awards and 52 nods and, in recent years, has been lauded for championing black culture through her art.

In 2016, discussing her music video for the Lemonade track “Formation,” Beyonce told Elle: “If celebrating my roots and culture during Black History Month made anyone uncomfortable, those feelings were there long before a video and long before me. I'm proud of what we created, and I'm proud to be a part of a conversation that is pushing things forward in a positive way.”

Beyonce also works with the campaign Chime for Change by Global Citizen, which she discussed with Elle: “We need men and women to understand the double standards that still exist in this world, and we need to have a real conversation so we can begin to make changes...That is why I wanted to work with [the philanthropic organizations] Chime for Change and Global Citizen. They understand how issues related to education, health, and sanitation around the world affect a woman's entire existence and that of her children. They're putting programs in place to help those young girls who literally face death because they want to learn, and to prevent women from dying during childbirth because there's no access to health care. Working to make those inequalities go away is being a feminist, but more importantly, it makes me a humanist.”

Tammy Duckworth

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Previously serving as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois, Tammy Duckworth was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2017. She was an Army helicopter pilot during the Iraq war where she lost her legs and injured her arm. The mom of one is not only the first woman with disabilities to be elected to Congress and the first member of Congress born in Thailand, but, when she welcomes her second baby girl, who is due in April, Duckworth will become the first woman to give birth while serving in the U.S. Senate. In addition to breaking boundaries and shifting perspectives in politics, Duckworth has worked tirelessly as an advocate for veterans, working on programs that target issues like PTSD and homelessness.

Jane Goodall

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World-famous ecologist Dr. Jane Goodall is considered an international leader in the environmental movement who has made immeasurable contributions to the body of research on primates. Through a 55-year research study, Goodall made the world aware of the fact that chimps have personalities, minds, and emotions. She also founded the Jane Goodall Institute and Roots & Shoots program, which aim to raise awareness and action for endangered species and vulnerable habitats. The Roots & Shoots program site notes that Dr. Goodall “also redefined species conservation to include the needs of local people and the environment.”

In her 1990 book Through a Window, Dr. Goodall famously wrote, "The more we learn of the true nature of nonhuman animals, especially those with complex brains and corresponding complex social behavior, the more ethical concerns are raised regarding their use in the service of man — whether this be in entertainment, as 'pets,' for food, in research laboratories or any of the other uses to which we subject them.”

Tess Holliday

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Dubbed “The World’s First Size-22 Supermodel” by People magazine in 2015, Tess Holliday is also the founder of social media movement Eff Your Beauty Standards, a model for brands like like Torrid, H&M, and Addition ELLE, and a mom of two. Holliday empowers girls and women to celebrate themselves at any size or shape, using her spotlight to promote representation. “I think it’s really important for all young girls to see themselves represented in fashion so they don’t feel alone in the world," she told The Cut. "I think that I have a career because I never gave up. I had to fight for everything. I was always in a position where I had to figure things out on my own. So when people told me that I couldn’t model, I just remember thinking that it was ridiculous. I felt like I had already been through the impossible.”

Angelina Jolie

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Not only is the mom of six an actress and director, she’s a devoted humanitarian who serves as a United Nations Special Envoy. In 2013, when she underwent a preventative double mastectomy after confirming she’s a carrier of the BRCA1 gene, she spurred a much-needed conversation around preventing breast and ovarian cancer. She has also promoted education for girls around the globe, donating $200,000 to Malala Yousafzai's fund to promote women's rights to education in Pakistan after the teen survived a brutal attack by the Taliban that included getting shot in the head. She also opened an all-girls primary school in Afghanistan outside of Kabul. In addition, Jolie’s work on disaster relief and refugee aid has been applauded internationally.

When accepting the Humanitarian Award at the 5th Annual Governors Ball in 2013, Jolie famously explained how she grew into her role as a humanitarian: “I came into this business young and worried about my own experiences, my own pain. And it was only when I began to travel and look at life beyond my home that I understood my responsibility to others. And I’ve met survivors of war and famine, rape. I’ve learned what life is like for most people in this world. And how fortunate I was to have food to eat and a roof over my head, a safe place to live and the joy of having my family safe and healthy. And I have realized how sheltered I have been. And I was determined, never to be that way again."

Yao Chen

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Actress Yao Chen is a champion of refugees and philanthropist who serves as an official UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in China. The mom of two is known for using her huge social media following to raise awareness around the issues close to her heart. “I am deeply touched by how refugees keep their dignity and how poverty does not destroy their kindness,” she’s quoted as saying on the UNHCR site. “I want to let them know they are not alone, there are people who love them.”

Dorothy Hodgkin

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British biochemist and mom of three Dorothy Hodgkin won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1964 for developing protein crystallography. She’s also credited with advancing health care around the globe by discovering the structure of penicillin, insulin and vitamin B12. NobelPrize.org notes, “According to her peers, Dorothy Hodgkin succeeded where others failed through a combination of creative qualities and profound chemical knowledge. She followed an intuitive sense for how to position atoms in space and had a feeling for the structures she was dealing with.”

Princess Diana

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Referred to as “the People’s Princess,” the late Princess Diana tragically passed away just over 20 years ago in 1997. She’s credited with modernizing what it meant to be royal, using the attention of the press to turn the public’s eye to humanitarian causes. She was also extremely compassionate and committed to helping communities all over the globe. In 1987, she famously shook hands with a man who was suffering with HIV/AIDS, perhaps showing the world that you couldn’t catch the illness through a handshake. The late mother of Prince William and Prince Harry once told the chairman of the Washington Post Company, the late Katharine Graham: “If I’m going to talk on behalf of any cause, I want to go and see the problem for myself and learn about it.”

Frances Beinecke

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Lifelong environmentalist and mom of three Frances Beinecke served as the head of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), considered one of the most important environmental action groups in the U.S., from 2006 to 2015. Under her leadership, the group truly began to focus on major environmental issues like clean energy, climate change, the world’s oceans, and endangered wildlife. Beinecke was also appointed to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling by former President Barack Obama.

The influential environmentalist had been with the NRDC for over 30 years altogether, taking a couple of years off to be a stay-at-home mom when her children were young.

“After trying to get my three daughters to eat right while raising them, they’ve now become a big influence on me,” Beinecke told Edible Manhattan in 2011. “They’re millennial kids and very aware of the impact factory farms and meat production have on the environment. So they’ve inspired me to eat less meat.”